Sunday, March 24, 2013

In the coming days, we'll be paying some attention to recent trumpet trio albums, one of my favorite line-ups. You can click the "trumpet trio" tag on the right to have a look at some great examples of recent history, starting with Lester Bowie and Don Cherry, and more recently some fantastic albums with Thomas Heberer, Taylor Ho Bynum, Nate Wooley, Rob Mazurek, Kirk Knuffke, Snus, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Serge Adam, Jon Corbett, Scott Tinkler, Andrzej Przybielski, Herb Robertson, Dennis Gonzalez. And others? Enjoy!

Nils Petter Molvaer's latest, "Baboon Moon" (Thirsty Ear), is fantastic and very different from his previous work. Whereas before the emphasis was on layering samples or stacking up beats, this album is all about weaving different musical forms together. Its isn't sugarcoated anymore, yet it still is recognizably Molvaer and, yes, 'accessible' (there's no other word, is there?). A lot of that has to do with the new guitarist, Stian Westerhus: a name that has been thrown about recently as an upcoming superstar. Review!

"Baboon Moon" has already been reviewed by Stef: http://www.freejazzblog.org/2011/10/nu-trumpets.htmlI agree with Fergus, this is a great album, especially the rock elements provided by the drums add a new quality to Molvaer's sound.